NEW DELHI (AFP) - India's foreign minister has said New Delhi must accept China's growing presence in its own backyard as Beijing steps up its investments and diplomatic efforts in South Asia.

New Delhi has been wary of growing Chinese influence around the Indian Ocean, where Beijing has forged ties with Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the Maldives and military-ruled Myanmar, often through funding and building infrastructure.

Speaking at a conference in the Indian capital on Monday, Salman Khurshid said: "We will have to accept the new reality of China's presence in many areas that we consider an exclusive playground for India and its friends.

"China for instance would give a right arm to be in the Indian Ocean as comfortably as India is placed in the Indian Ocean... this is an important critical factor for what we will see as the emerging Asian century," he said.

Khurshid, 59, was appointed foreign minister just over six weeks ago amid expectations that he would bring a fresh approach to a decades-old diplomatic strategy that has favoured caution over ambition.

The minister, whose speech was sent to AFP by the foreign ministry, said that India needed to develop its relationship with China into a meaningful partnership in the coming years.

"China is aggressive. China is a partner for us. China is a neighbour for us... the real creativity in India's foreign policy will come in being able to combine the strengths of China with the strengths of India," he said.

Relations between India and China, which have an unresolved border dispute, are often prickly and marked by mutual distrust, a legacy of a brief border war in 1962.

India's navy chief said last week that Beijing's growing maritime strength was a major cause for concern and New Delhi needed to adapt its strategy accordingly.

China, which put its first aircraft carrier into service in September, has been locked in a series of territorial disputes in the South China Sea and has warned India about investing there.

India signed a pact with Vietnam last year to expand oil exploration in the sea.

NEW DELHI â€” Indiaâ€™s new foreign minister says he will strengthen relations with Pakistan and China. Salman Khurshid is expected to bring new energy to the government's efforts to improve ties with regional neighbors.

Forging relations

In one of his first comments after taking over as foreign minister, Khurshid said he hopes to work more closely with Pakistan.

Khurshid, 59, is much younger than his 80-year-old predecessor and is widely described as one of Indiaâ€™s most sophisticated and articulate politicians.

Khurshid comes from an illustrious Muslim family. And he is not a newcomer to the foreign ministry -- he was junior foreign minister in the 1990s.

The head of New Delhiâ€™s Center for Media Studies, Bhaskar Rao, says the new minister will give momentum to Indiaâ€™s efforts to resolve differences with its Muslim neighbor.

â€œFirst and foremost the name itself rings a bell with people on the other side of the border. On any of these contentious issues, he is not known for taking [a] hard stand. He is a good negotiator. He would be able to establish a wavelength,â€ said Rao.

Peace talks between the nuclear-armed neighbors - put on hold after the 2008 Mumbai attacks -- restarted last year. But Islamabadâ€™s failure to prosecute the Pakistani militants who allegedly plotted those attacks has stifled progress.

Common ground

Nevertheless, Khurshid is optimistic and suggests India has more common ground with Pakistan than ever before. He says issues New Delhi has highlighted in the past have emerged as a concern for Pakistan.

C. Rajamohan, a strategic affairs analyst at the Observer Research Foundation, says Khurshid is referring to Indiaâ€™s long-held concerns about terrorism and militant groups based in Pakistan.

â€œIndiaâ€™s terrorism comes from across Pakistan and [in] Pakistan, much of the threat is coming from within. I think the idea is that look as Pakistanâ€™s civilian leaders and probably even its military recognize that terrorism is a threat to themselves it is possible to work together and try and find a way of working together to combat terrorism and then in the process also look at resolving outstanding disputes like Kashmir and other issues,â€ Rajamohan stated.

Closer ties with China

Khurshid is also optimistic about Indiaâ€™s ties with China. He says the potential for growth is huge and that the passage of time and emergence of a new economic order in the world has brought China and India far closer together.

As he vows to take Indiaâ€™s foreign policy ahead, the new foreign minister recommends so-call out-of-the-box thinking.

Analysts say Khurshid will likely display more diplomatic skill than his predecessor, whose reputation was battered by several public gaffes.

S.M. Krishna once began reading from the Portuguese foreign minister's speech at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council in New York. Another embarrassment came when he was accused by his Pakistani counterpart at a press conference in 2010 of having to take his orders by phone from New Delhi.

no we have been there in your backyard for the past couple of years!look we all know that whatever the chinis brag about their "so called" superior capabilities,the truth is that you simply don't have the capability to challenge the Indian Navy in the IOR!and i don't think this will change in the next 20-30 years as the GOI has recently stepped up the moderisation and the massiver expansion of the IN.so it would be suicidal for the PLAN to challenge the hegemony of INat least in the IOR region in the near future(and please don't come up with the issues of SL and Maldives as we all know that they don't even have proper naval forces to counter our Coast Guards let alone the IN).

you simply don't have the capability to challenge the Indian Navy in the IOR!.

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We go to IOR to kill Somali pirates. we will make friends with Indian. Indan China navy will join exercise once both sides's new AC are ready. we will soon see Indian Mig29 land on Chinese AV and eat Chinese food and Su33 Chinese copy version will land on Indian AC and sale sexy Japs AV DVD.

I am all for peace with China, because China-India disputes are based on territorial claims. With Pakistan however, the dispute is existential. People who talk of peace with Pakis are idiots. By extension, China should stop propping up the terrorist state if it really wants peace with India.

How would you know about India you live in a homogenous society and the poor uighur left you are changing the demographics there.

Well you know India is not perfect and as any democracy we do not aim for perfection comrade.

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Well, in a political debate, we don't have the habit to resort to one's ethnics or beliefs. you can call him a corrupted official, but you never name them a corrupted muslim official. that is the difference. I hope I made myself clear.

Well, in a political debate, we don't have the habit to resort to one's ethnics or beliefs. you can call him a corrupted official, but you never name them a corrupted muslim official. that is the difference. I hope I made myself clear.

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You have not made anything clear except that you are replicating a weasel.

Where have I criticised the Minister's statement and mentioned the word 'Muslim' or implied that my remarks are because he is a Muslim minister.

I think you are tending to be cleverer by half and living up to your moniker.